Exploring the interactions between external support, internal psychological factors, and digital teaching competence: Evidence from a PLS-SEM model in Chinese rural teachers

Improving rural teachers' digital teaching competence (DTC) is essential for promoting educational equity and supporting the high-quality development of rural education. Drawing on social ecosystem theory, this study surveyed 689 rural teachers in China and used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore the factors associated with their DTC and the mechanisms through which these factors operate. The findings showed that the model accounted for 0.433, 0.360, and 0.325 of the variance in DTC, digital technology attitude, and digital technology self-efficacy, respectively. Government support (β = 0.213), school environment (β = 0.140), colleague support (β = 0.164), digital technology self-efficacy (β = 0.196), and digital technology attitude (β = 0.139) all had significant positive effects on DTC. Mediation analysis further revealed that government support and the school environment influenced DTC through both direct and indirect pathways, although the mechanisms differed. Specifically, the effect of government support was mediated by digital technology attitude, whereas the effect of the school environment operated through digital technology self-efficacy as well as a serial pathway linking digital technology self-efficacy and digital technology attitude. No significant indirect effect was found for colleague support. Overall, the results indicate that rural teachers' DTC is shaped by the joint influence of multilevel external support and individual psychological factors. This study offers empirical evidence for explaining how rural teachers' DTC develops and provides practical guidance for improving policy support and teacher development pathways.